THE STREET
Photojournalism, Documentary and Street Photography
PHOTOJOURNALISM & DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
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Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Life magazine & the photo-essay
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The Decisive Moment
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Walker Evans
FSA – the Farm Security Administration
Dorothea Lange & Migrant Mother
POSTWAR AMERICAN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
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Robert Frank & The Americans
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Diane Arbus
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Garry Winogrand
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Lee Friedlander
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William Eggleston & The New Colour Photography
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON
Cartier-Bresson is the most famous
photojournalist. He worked internationally for
50 years and helped set up the Magnum photo
agency.
His best photographs combine interesting
subjects with precise timing and beautiful
compositions.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brussels, 1932
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Seville, Spain, 1933
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Beijing. Final days of the Kuomintang, 1948
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tokyo. A farewell service for the late actor Danjuro, 1965
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Russia 1955
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Life Magazine cover, 1955
‘Military appraisal at Russian trolley stop’
Life Magazine photo essay, January 17, 1955
Life Magazine photo essay, January 17, 1955
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Simigne-la-Rotonde, 1969
THE DECISIVE MOMENT
‘The decisive moment is the simultaneous
recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the
significance of an event as well as the
precise organization of forms which gives
that event its proper expression.’
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, 1932
THE DECISIVE MOMENT
‘There is a creative fraction of a second when
you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a
composition or an expression that life itself
offers you, and you must know with intuition
when to click the camera. That is the moment
the photographer is creative.’
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, 1932
Closing the gap between the shoes and its
reflection defeats the point of the
photograph, which is the suspension of time.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, 1932
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, 1932
Cartier-Bresson preferred to judge pictures
by looking at them upside-down.
“He always turned them all around and
upside-down. It became like a sort of dance.
Strangely, he didn’t want to look at the
picture.” – René Burri
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris, 1932
The actual negative from 1932
Henri Cartier-Bresson, negative
Inverted to show cropping of the negative
Henri Cartier-Bresson, negative
Where the photograph was taken. Google Street View
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY
Walker Evans and the Farm Security Administration
Walker Evans was one of the most dedicated realists in the
history of photography. His work defines the category of
Documentary Photography
Evans was one of the photographers working for the Farm
Security Administration, an agency of President Roosevelt’s New
Deal that sought to improve the conditions in the country during
the Great Depression.
Walker Evans at work, c1936
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug97/fsa/welcome.html
Walker Evans, Roadside stand near Birmingham, 1936
http://www.seoulartfiend.com/2010/06/28/walker-evans-at-the-hanmi-photography-museum/
Walker Evans, Farmhouse, Westchester County, New York, 1936
Walker Evans, Garage in Southern City Outskirts, 1936
Walker Evans, Barber Shop, New Orleans 1935
Walker Evans, Barber Shop, New Orleans 1935 - detail
Walker Evans, Penny Picture Display, Savannah, Georgia, 1936
He spent some time with a poor rural
family in the South, capturing their hard
life but also their humanity.
Walker Evans, Allie Mae Burroughs, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Walker Evans, Allie Mae Burroughs, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Dorothea Lange also worked for the Farm
Security Administration. In 1936 she photographed a temporary camp for itinerant
farm labourers.
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
Dorothea Lange in the 1930s
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Peapickers in camp, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Peapickers in camp, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Peapickers in camp, 1936
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Raphael, Madonna and Child, c1503
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/node/1530
Florence Thompson in 1979
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
Florence Thompson in 1979
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
'I wish she hadn't taken my picture. I can't
get a penny out of it. She didn't ask my name.
She said she wouldn't sell the pictures. She
said she'd send me a copy. She never did.’
Florence Thompson and children in 1979
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936
POST-WAR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
In the 1950s and 60s there was a new approach to
photographing the social landscape in America.
These photographers had a cool, existential approach to the
subject. The warm, humanism of Cartier-Bresson and Dorothea
Lange was rejected as sentimental.
ROBERT FRANK
The Americans, 1958
In 1955 Robert Frank was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship to drive through
the United States photographing the people
and places he encountered.
Out of 28,000 shots, he selected 83 for his
book The Americans, published in 1958.
The Americans French edition 1958. Cover
design by Saul Steinberg
Robert Frank, Swiss, unobtrusive, nice, with
that little camera that he raises and snaps
with one hand he sucked a sad poem right out
of America onto film, taking rank among the
tragic poets of the world.
- Jack Kerouac, introduction to The Americans
Robert Frank, Political rally, Chicago
Robert Frank, Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey
Robert Frank, Canal Street – New Orleans
Robert Frank, Charleston, South Carolina
Robert Frank, Covered car, Long Beach, California
Robert Frank, Sante Fe, New Mexico
DIANE ARBUS
In Arbus’ photographs, transvestites, giants
and dwarves are presented sympathetically
and with dignity, while supposedly‘normal’
American citizens often appear eccentric or
strange.
She often used a flash, even in daylight, giving
her images a theatrical edge. She placed her
subjects in the centre of the square frame. www.tate.org.uk
Diane Arbus photographed by Garry
Winogrand in Central Park, 1969
There’s a quality of legend about freaks.
Most people go through life dreading
they’ll have a traumatic experience.
Freaks were born with their trauma.
They’ve already passed their test in life.
They’re aristocrats.
– Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus,
Woman with a veil on Fifth Ave, 1968
Diane Arbus,
Mexican dwarf in hotel room, 1970
Diane Arbus,
Woman with a veil on Fifth Ave, 1968
Diane Arbus,
Mexican dwarf in hotel room, 1970
Diane Arbus,
A naked man being a woman, 1968
Diane Arbus,
Child with toy grenade, Central Park, 1962
Diane Arbus,
A naked man being a woman, 1968
Garry Winogrand
Garry Winogrand was a street photographer
known for his oblique vision of public life in
mid-century America.
“A photograph isn’t what was photographed.
It’s something else. It’s about transformation
I photograph to find out what something will
look like photographed.”
Garry Winogrand, New York 1965
Garry Winogrand
At the time of his death at age 56, his late
work remained largely undeveloped, with
about 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film, 6,500
rolls of developed but not proofed exposures,
and about 3,000 rolls only realised as far as
contact sheets being made. In total he left
nearly 300,000 unedited images.
Garry Winogrand, contact sheet, 1961
Garry Winogrand, Woman with Ice Cream Cone, 1968
Garry Winogrand, New York World’s Fair, 1964
Garry Winogrand, Los Angeles 1969
Garry Winogrand, New York City 1969
Garry Winogrand, New York City 1969
Garry Winogrand, New York City 1969
Lee Friedlander
In the 1960s and 70s Lee Friedlander
evolved an influential visual language of
urban "social landscape” - detached images
of urban life, store-front reflections,
structures framed by fences, and posters
and signs all combining to capture the look
of modern life.
Lee Friedlander, Self Portrait, 1965
Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1962
Lee Friedlander, Albuquerque, 1972
Lee Friedlander, Knoxville, Tennessee, 1971
Lee Friedlander, Self-portrait, 1972
WILLIAM EGGLESTON
The New Colour Photography
William Eggleston works with the most
commonplace subjects. In the 1970s, he
pioneered the use of colour film in the world
of “art photography”.
William Eggleston, Memphis, 1969-71
The people in Eggleston’s photographs could be
characters in a Coen Brothers movie. The
skinny, sharp-featured woman in the bouffant
hairdo is a comical and vaguely alarming figure
- New York Times
William Eggleston, Memphis, 1969-71
William Eggleston, untitled, no date
William Eggleston, untitled, no date
William Eggleston, untitled, no date
William Eggleston, Georgia, 1978
William Eggleston, Memphis, Tennessee, c1971